


Can We Handle Being Kids?

by 0bviousLeigh



Series: Children of War [7]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: F/F, M/M, Yuri and Serena are actually besties, exploration of sexual orientation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-03
Updated: 2016-09-03
Packaged: 2018-08-12 19:05:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7945723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Is this a date?”</p><p>Yuri’s head snaps up, and he gives Serena a look of utter confusion. “Of course not, what would make you think that?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can We Handle Being Kids?

**Author's Note:**

> Title inspires by a line from Hayley Kiyoko's song "Gravel to Tempo"
> 
> Everyone journeys through questions about sexual orientation in their own way. In this case, Serena's inner struggles kind of mirror my own thoughts. Nobody goes through it the same way as anyone else so this is, in no way, meant to represent all lesbian/gay/queer people. Just putting that out there.

“Is this a date?”

Yuri’s head snaps up, and he gives Serena a look of utter confusion. “Of course not, what would make you think that?”

Serena gestures to their surroundings. “We’re in a coffee shop, for one. According to television, when a boy asks a girl to meet him for coffee, just the two of them, it is a date.”

“It isn’t just the two of us, though,” Yuri says. He gestures to the dog at his feet, and eyes Serena’s wrist disdainfully. “Did you really need the reptile, though?”

Serena brandishes the certificate under Yuri’s nose, thankfully with the hand that doesn’t have a snake on it. “Peri is a registered emotional support animal, just like En!”

That’s one reason Yuri invited Serena to this café, because they know that En is a support animal, and they don’t have a problem with it. In fact, the employees give Yuri free coffee because he lets them play with En if the shop isn’t busy.

“I still need to change that name,” Yuri mumbles, mostly to himself.

“Would he answer to anything else?”

“He’s a dog,” Yuri says. “He’ll answer to anything.”

“Back to my question,” Serena says, “Is this a date?”

“I already told you, no,” Yuri says firmly, going back to stirring sugar into his coffee.

“Then why are we here?”

“To talk,” Yuri says. “And because I’m bored.”

“Bored?” Serena repeats.

“Aren’t you?” Yuri asks. “You’re not in school either, it’s not like online lessons take up that much of your day.”

Serena shrugs. “I sleep when I have nothing to do. Or I watch TV with Peri.”

“Have you heard anything about Fusion dimension?” Yuri asks.

Serena looks around, but nobody is paying them any attention. She leans across the table. “The Academia students aren’t really…adjusting well. I heard Shuzo talking about it. Half of them are in denial, the other half are horrified with themselves.” It’s been six months since the end of the war, Serena kind of feels like there should have been more progress. But then she looks at herself, and realizes she has no right to judge.

Yuri takes a sip of his coffee. “As to be expected,” he murmurs. “How could people let that happen to their children? Let them become monsters like us? Or me?”

“Believe me, if I had parents I would ask them,” Serena sighs. “This conversation is depressing.”

“I was hoping for good news,” Yuri says. “No one tells me anything. They treat me like I’ll have another break down at any moment.”

“I’m sure they’re just worried,” Serena says. “I was worried too, when I heard you were in the hospital.”

They sit in silence for a few moments. Serena remembers a few weeks ago, when Sora burst into the Hiiragi household, tears in his eyes, and screamed that Yuri tried to kill himself. Serena had been in shock. She knew Yuri was having a hard time, but she’d never imagined…Yuri always seemed so sure of himself, she never imagined he’d try to hurt himself. And then when she saw him, after he’d stopped eating and sleeping, when he had an IV pumping fluids and sedatives into him, Serena realized she didn’t know Yuri at all.

“Does having En help?” Serena asks.

Yuri nods. “I never thought it would make such a difference. But I guess it makes sense, I used to pour myself into plants back at Academia, and it always made me feel good. Something about caring for living things is so cathartic. And a living thing that actually responds…it’s quite fun.”

“More fun than plants?” Serena asks teasingly.

“Bite your tongue,” Yuri says, grinning. “Plants are the most fun.”

Serena hadn’t ordered a drink for herself, and she reaches across the table and steals Yuri’s drink. She takes a sip, nearly chokes, and gives Yuri his cup back. “Gross!”

“I didn’t tell you to drink it,” Yuri says, wiping the rim of the cup with a napkin.

“I don’t have cooties, you know,” Serena says.

“Blame my OCD,” Yuri says.

“That’s a cop out, you don’t even know if you have OCD! You just don’t like girls, do you?”

She really didn’t mean anything by it, but Yuri pauses and looks up at Serena. “Actually,” he says slowly, “I’m not sure I do.”

“Oh,” Serena says weakly. She clears her throat. “So…what about boys?”

Yuri wraps his fingers around the coffee cup. “Maybe,” Yuri says quietly. “I don’t know if I even have the capacity for romance.”

“Who said anything about romance?” Serena yelps. She gets a funny look from the people at the other table and averts her gaze, not-so-casually raising the wrist that Peri is wrapped around. The other people look away.

“Well, that’s what liking people is about, right? In the context that we were just discussing?” Yuri asks.

“You can like people without needing romance to be involved, it’s called a crush,” Serena says. “I read about it.”

That catches Yuri’s attention. “Why were you reading about crushes?”

Serena feels herself blushing to the roots of her hair. “None of your business.”

Yuri smirks. “You have a crush, don’t you? Who on?”

“Well, who made you question if you like boys?” Serena fires back.

Yuri glares. “I liked you better when you didn’t talk to me.”

Serena sputters, “You started this conversation! I was just making a joke about the cooties, you didn’t have to make it into a serious talk. And I haven’t not talked to you in years, why even bring that up?”

“It’s Yuya.” Yuri says.

“What’s Yuya?” Serena asks, before her brain catches up to her, and what she had asked mere seconds ago. “Oh, shit,” she whispers. “You like Yuya?”

“I don’t know,” Yuri hisses, looking around like he expects Yuya to jump up from behind the serving counter. “I just said I don’t know if I have the ability to like anyone.”

Serena doesn’t know if she’s surprised or not. But Yuya has been very good to Yuri lately… “Could it be that you’re like, I don’t know, projecting?” Serena asks. “He’s nice to you, so you just…latched on?”

“I’ve wondered the exact same thing,” Yuri says, rubbing his forehead. “He’s been with me all the time since we got here, like when he wasn’t in school he was next to me at all times. At dinner, in the car, even just sitting on the couch, and when I was in the hospital…it probably means nothing but…I mean I saw the way he sees me.”

Yuri starts mumbling, and Serena only half follows along because now he’s talking about what happened when he, Yuya, Yuto, and Yugo became ‘one mind’ or whatever they call it.

Serena interrupts Yuri to say, “It’s Yuzu, for me.”

Yuri stops midsentence. “Oh wow,” he says, “Look at us, falling for our dimensional counterparts.”

Serena looks down at her nails, the nails that Yuzu cuts down weekly, behind closed bathroom doors, her hands holding Serena’s. There are, surely, more romantic dates, but for Serena, who’s never been on a date, it’s enough to make her heart race.

“I also wonder if I’m projecting,” Serena says. “I have nothing to compare it to.”

Yuri stares at Serena. “Maybe…maybe we should make this a date.”

Serena laughs. “Oh god, no way,” She says. “Sorry, I just…I don’t feel anything date-like for you.”

“Oh, come on,” Yuri says, “How do you know if we’ve never tried?”

“I have tried, actually,” Serena says. “Not for you but…boys, in general. I’ve never liked them. I tried, back in…school. I thought I was broken, I never thought to imagine it with…girls. Not until recently.”

Yuri absorbs that information. “So are you a lesbian?”

Serena wrinkles her nose. “I’ve never liked that phrase. ‘ _A lesbian._ ’ Boys get to just be gay, girls have to be _‘a’_ something.”

“Then do you reserve your affections for those with vaginas?” Yuri asks.

Serena’s face lights up red again. “Could you please keep your voice down?”

Yuri rolls his eyes, finishes his coffee, and stands up. “Okay, let’s go somewhere else. Yoko and Yusho should be out, we can go to their house.”

“Your house,” Serena corrects. “You should call it your house.”

“Fine, my house!” Yuri cries, “Now let’s go, I’m determined to figure this out one way or another.”

Serena and Yuri spend the afternoon researching sexuality, coming across words and blog posts that overload them and make their heads spin. They lose track of time, and only realize how late it is when Yuya, Sora, Yuto, and Yugo come home.

“What are you two up to?” Yuya asks innocently.

Yuri quickly closes a tab about praise kinks. He’s sure that he and Serena are both blushing.

“Nothing!” They shout together.

That just makes everyone give them suspicious looks. Serena leaps up from her chair and makes sure that Hyperion is still around her wrist.

“Look at the time!” Serena cries, well aware that she’s staring at her snake, not a watch, “I really need to get going, things to do and all that. Bye Yuri, bye guys!” And she dashes from the house, head down in an attempt to hide her blush. The praise kink page wasn’t half as explicit as the page about ‘sexually stimulating positions,’ a page she and Yuri ended up on accidentally, and ended up closing very, very quickly.

Later that night Serena texts Yuri, ‘ **I feel like we overdid it today. Should have stuck with identifications instead of diving headfirst into the more explicit sexuality stuff.** ’

‘ **I feel like you’re right,** ’ Yuri responds.

Serena sends back, ‘ **Maybe next time we don’t research together.** ’

Yuri calls Serena to whisper, “What next time?! I’m staying away from the internet, that one page with the pictures scarred me for life, now I know for sure I want nothing to do with…” he lowers his voice even more, “Female sex organs. No offense.”

“I could say the same,” Serena mutters. “Or, the reverse.”

“Yeah well, it would be weird if you were repulsed by…that, considering you’re probably about as straight as a—”

There’s a knock on Serena’s door and she jumps. “I’M NAKED!” She screams. Yuri lets out a string of curses and Serena yanks the phone from her ear.

“Okay,” Yuzu laughs, “I’m out of the shower, if you need it.”

“Okay thanks,” Serena calls back. She puts the phone back to her ear.

“Of all the things I never wanted to be screamed into my ear,” Yuri grumbles. “Please tell me you’re not actually naked.”

“Why, are you imagining it?” Serena asks.

Yuri screeches and hangs up the phone.

 

Serena sits at the breakfast bar across from Yuzu, head in her hands as she stares absentmindedly at Yuzu. They’re both supposed to be doing homework, but Yuzu is texting someone and Serena is daydreaming about a word she found that morning.

‘ _Queer._ ’ Serena rolls the word around in her head. It is, according to a website called Wikipedia, an umbrella term for people who are part of the sexual minority, AKA Not Straight. She likes the word better than ‘lesbian,’ which to her just sounds weird, and also better than ‘gay,’ which she knows is more to refer to guys who like other guys than girls who like girls.

‘ _I’m queer,_ ’ Serena thinks to herself. It also means strange, or odd, which is extremely fitting for Serena, who is just about as odd as they come, having spent most of her life in a dimension that advocated mass destruction. So maybe queer isn’t the best way to describe her sexuality, given that it could also just be referring to Serena herself.

“Serena?”

Serena blinks and pulls her head out of the clouds. “Yeah?”

“You alright?” Yuzu asks. “You’ve been really quiet lately.”

“Just thinking,” Serena says.

“About what?”

“Stuff.”

Yuzu smiles. “You can talk to me about it if you want.”

‘ _But it’s about you,_ ’ Serena thinks. And that brings up a whole other aspect to this—what if Serena figures everything out, learns all she can about herself, tells Yuzu about it, and learns that Yuzu doesn’t feel the same way? What if all of this is for nothing?

Serena lays her head on the table. “It’s…silly.”

“Silly how?” Yuzu asks.

Serena sighs. “Something that really…doesn’t even matter, I guess, in the grand scheme of things, something that’s taking up all my thoughts, even though I have bigger things to worry about.” Like her home, her classmates, and her own mental health (which is still not great).

“Clearly if it’s taking up all your thoughts, it means a lot to you, so it can’t be that silly.”

It’s sweet of Yuzu to put it like that, and it convinces Serena to open up. She puts down her pencil and takes a deep breath. “I’ve been thinking about…my sexuality.”

Yuzu’s eyes widen. “Really? What about it?”

Serena clears her throat. “Well I think I might be…gay. Queer. Shit,” This is not coming out the way she planned, “I think I like girls. I know I don’t like boys, and I’ve never given it much thought before, but I’ve had a lot of time on my hands lately to think about such things and I just…I can’t see myself with a guy. At all, ever in my life. But a girl…maybe someday. And I hate the phrase ‘a lesbian’ so I think I might just say that I’m queer? But I don’t know, like just now I said gay, it just kind of came out.” She laughs hysterically. “Like me, I guess, I’m out of the closet now. Not that I was ever in it in the first place because like, nobody asked.”

“Serena,” Yuzu says gently, reaching across the table and putting her hands on Serena’s.

Serena’s heart starts doing backflips. Yuzu’s going to kiss her, confess that she feels the same, sob that she’s had those same thoughts all her life, can she and Serena go on a date tomorrow?

“Try breathing,” Yuzu says, smiling. “I can tell you’re nervous.”

Serena inhales deeply and smiles. “Yeah, kind of. I’ve only talked about this with Yuri since, you know, he’s also not in school and we see each other all the time.”

“Well, you can talk to me about it,” Yuzu says, “Or my dad if you want, he’s always happy to listen, and I’m sure Shun would talk to you if you want.”

Serena nods, and she bites her lip. “Um…what about you? Have you ever…had questions?”

Yuzu looks down at the table. “Well…since I was a kid, people have always teased me about Yuya. They said we would be married one day. But I’ve never felt that way about him. To be honest, I’m not sure what I feel. I haven’t given it much thought.” She smiles at Serena. “Not as much as you have, anyway. What brought it on?”

Serena smiles, fantasies fading, but a light of hope still alive in her chest. “Nothing really. Just, you know, normal teenager stuff.”

Yuzu nods and lets go of Serena’s hands. “Makes sense.”

“And it doesn’t bother you?” Serena asks.

“Of course not!” Yuzu cries, “You’re still you.”

‘ _Still me, me with a crush on you,_ ’ Serena thinks. But that is a conversation for another time.


End file.
